Sutton Coldfield-based Ian Hazel Funerals has joined forces with LifeArt Coffins in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of cremations.

LifeArt coffins claim to produce up to 87 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional chipboard coffins and require up to 80 per cent fewer trees to make.

Cremation remains the most popular form of funeral with more than 480,000 people cremated in the UK in 2018.

One of the pollutants in cremations is nitrogen oxides, a collection of gases which have a global warming impact many times that of carbon dioxide and are linked to poor air quality in towns and cities.

A typical cremation using a chipboard coffin reportedly emits more nitrogen oxides during the 75-minute process than driving a car from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back.

Ian Hazel (pictured), MD, Ian Hazel Funerals said: “You can’t escape the fact that the environment has risen to the top of the global agenda. More and more families are asking us about our eco-coffin range so we wanted to provide as much choice as possible.Up to now, wicker and cardboard have been seen as the main options when it comes to environmentally-friendly coffins.

“With LifeArt, we’re able to provide our families with a traditional wood finish or a personalisable coffin that causes only a fraction of the pollution from MDF or Particleboard coffins. Hopefully, this will help the funeral profession to do its bit to tackle the climate emergency.”